Congrats OTP you've out-moroned yourself. Spotting some blurry textures very close up always was, and still is, the most obvious and pointless straw-clutching of any anti-Rage argument. Every game has it's graphical flaws and the minor ones in Rage were completely nullified by it's general graphical quality.

TBH the screenshot that Kona posted isn't in the top 100 scenes found in Rage, and it still makes his point. 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_pSwKe_alqE/VcpiiPoo85I/AAAAAAAAAcg/1Zf6TVeqkMQ/s1600/ragescreen2.jpg

Fifth is completely right about the ending tho.

P.S. by "screenshot Kona posted", I meant his 2nd screenshot with the long list of games. The 1st one is completely on point. 

Rage was an incredibly beautiful game when it was released, I was pretty surprised because I had the 360 version it looked fantastic still. There were some issues I still had such as the skybox being static and some of the environments could have used a little more "life" or motion (windy effects, tumbleweed, moving scenery etc).
Overall though I was impressed. I had expected that id would have added something to the end of the game so that it felt finished but I don't even think the DLC tied the game up properly (I never played it so correct me if I am wrong) 

Nah. The DLC was nice -- both the added stuff as well as "ultra nightmare" difficulty -- but didn't fix the ending. 

How should have Rage ended? (In the Rage thread, perhaps?) 

the dlc was great, well worth $5. but it had nothing to do with the main plot. it did have a slightly more appropriate spike in difficulty at the end with the ship battle, although by that point you know you're nearing the end so wasting every bit of awesome ammo you had left. those shotgun rockets were my choice. 

Man this thread is getting off topic, but it is still orbiting around the recent works of id, so...

I don't think Rage is a bad game, but I do think it is a lower point for id. As for innovation, I didn't see any with Rage. The technology was neat, but the driving/shooting combo had been seen, recently, with Borderlands, and previously with Halo. On top of that, the driving wasn't rewarding (the sounds alone made it difficult to enjoy) and the vehicle combat was awkward. I appreciate that id was trying to broaden their horizons, but you could cut vehicles in all forms from Rage and its quality wouldn't decrease, at least as far as my experiences went. It was ultimately filler, and a chore at times.

Rage looked great, and it felt good too. The shooting was responsive, the AI and animations blended together well... I loved the pirouette the Authority guys did if you decapitated them with a pulse round. But onetruepurple's image isn't as deceptive as has been suggested. Yes, it is blurry. That isn't the issue. It's a decal of a system of pipes with junctions, flow controls, and a switch of some sort. Just pasted onto the world. It doesn't matter how blurry or crisp that is, that looks bad, and is inconsistent with the overall aesthetic. Have an example of a similar issue, from Battlefield 3: http://i.imgur.com/IGOi1jL.jpg Note the red... Cinderblock? Lego piece? It clearly has geometry, but it is a very 2d image. It doesn't belong and once you notice it, you can't stop noticing it. I had a similar problem with the 3d assets being reduced to borderline spray paint decals in Rage (and the cardboard shrubbery which didn't seem to match the world at all).

Rage is beautiful. But not all of it is, and because it is beautiful, those hiccups, bad calls, and other issues are far more stark. Rage is _amazing_ at vistas. I think it would've been well suited for an RTS or Diablo clone, something where you look at a bigger picture at all times.

As for its ending, well, I don't think it had one. It smells strongly of id being told to wrap it up. You get a bit of a ramp up in theme as you are directly confronting the Authority, but it never amounts to more than some fights in hallways, and a brief tiny arena fight, that I thought was just another encounter. Then I hit a switch and got a Steam achievement. I hadn't even used a BFG round. No, the game plainly wasn't done. They didn't build all of the Subway city with its new NPCs just to hit you with a few more missions and send you to the final wave. The whole thing screams for larger ideas, and practically demands it.

As for other games that year, well we had Dark Souls, Brink (yeah the execution sucked, but I'm talking about ideas), and Modern Warfare 3 (the Strike Package system greatly expanded the player roles in MP and opened the game up without infringing on the core style).

Honestly, I'd buy another Rage, if they cut the minigames, the driving (unless they made it compelling), and focused on giving us detailed large spaces with more of Nelno's AI and Carmack's 60hz shooting. Give me 10 hours of the Dead City and the various clan hangouts.

Oh and here is something I never hear people bring up regarding Rage, good or bad. The stealth. Crouch walk, use a crossbow, headshot the last guy in a group when he is out of sight. You can go a long way, unnoticed, if you do that. That is very rewarding.

Almost as rewarding as two turrets in that creepy brewery.

As for Doom 4 - it doesn't need to be like the originals, I just don't want it to suck. I want more good games to play, and this flat combat where you regain health and ammo by watching animations with monsters doesn't do anything for me. I'm also tired of hearing id talk about how fast it is, when it plays slower than the average Advanced Warfare match. Frankly I think they should try again at Rage, or do a new IP. Stop using the reputation of old games they don't seem to understand, and try something of their own. 

 

"I think that... we live in, it may be good or it may be bad, but we live in a Call of Duty era. That�s just the way it is. And that franchise has more impact on the industry than I think people realise. You just have to kind of go with the flow. "

that's a fucking weird thing to see considering your company invented fps and probably perfected them. 

Game dev should be "ok let's design some awesome gameplay ideas on paper then figure out the tech we need to develop to realise this".

Instead id would go "Ok, Carmack is working on some cool stuff that tickles his fancy or whatever, so let's see how that pans out and then figure out what sort of game we can bang out that uses all that".

Carmack is therefore both the hero, and the villain, in the grand saga that is the rise and fall of id. 

I don't think we're in a COD era, and the franchise has far less impact on the industry than what people think. Realistic shooters were around long before COD and would still be around regardless. You take COD out of the picture, and maybe you might also lose the most obvious imitators Battlefield, er.... er.... that's about it. Some of the Tom Clancy games have slowly moved more towards COD style gameplay, as they chase better sales.

MOH, Operation Flashpoint/Arma, CS/TF and the HL mods all came before COD. The games industry is full of games that clearly aren't that similar to COD. I actually would like more, I quite enjoy a simple 5-10 hour stroll through great looking locations shooting with my standard weapons.

If he's talking about not imitators but just borrowing certain elements, I suppose it's hard more impact there, I bet there's not one thing that the COD franchise actually invented.

I think GTA probably is the most influential game in terms of imitators. There are probably about 5 games a year that you know are designed to target the GTA fan. The type of people that get a big chubby because in GTA you can drive around and change the radio station in the car, like it's some amazing feature. 

So the COD series is one of most important FPS games. Not only because it makes a lot of money, but because its a safe bet for investment. 

I don't think we're in a COD era, and the franchise has far less impact on the industry than what people think.

Oh, I agree with that. We actually seem to be at the start of a backlash against CoD clones; or at least a willingness among the AAA studios to try something different.

The problem however was not that; the problem was that was what Willits thought and that thinking was what informed some of his design decisions. 

You're gorgeous you, mh. It's just the way you type. Are you me, but somehow I've become schizophrenic and split myself between two accounts?

Either that or I'm just saying I concur in some bizarre and abstract manner. Do you know what you're saying?

The problem with CoD is it's such a shit game. Do you think that the CoD generation will look back with pride at all those hours they wasted in such a retrograde game? Or do you think they'll be embarassed?

I recall in 1997 telling my friends about Quake and this thing called the internet which lets you play this other thing called deathmatch and how amazing it was. Then years later, they all finally discovered what I was talking about, but in a grotesque form. My friends didn't understand why I wasn't into it (They'd previously called me the "gamesmaster"). I tried to explain how it wasn't skill based and that it was rigged so that low level players were close to slightly higher level players. They thought I was just making excuses. I tried to explain about mouse+keyboard. They still don't believe me. Now they wonder why I don't answer their text messages. Bastards.

Anyway, I'm glad the WoW and CoD era is sliding away. Could DOOM 4 be a stepping stone back to skill based games? Hopefully. Personally though, I don't think arena deathmatch will ever come back like how it was. It's just a bit boring tbh. I want something new. I like the direction valve have gone with action+puzzle stuff. 

off topic but not really, did anyone here try Wolfenstein the new order? How is it? Is it fun? Is it challenging? Does it have regen health?

I forgot about that game but got interested after playing tormentor667's wolfendoom blade of agony 

"I'm not fond of story in action fps games, unless of course it's action/puzzle like HL2. "

If I recall correctly there was no story, action or puzzles in hl2- unless you mean the extremely watered down versions of each 

I didn't think I would, but it turned out to be pretty fun. Some parts were better than others of course. Graphics were great. Story wasn't terrible.

I got it on sale for $15 and didn't feel ripped off at all. I played on middle difficulty and it wasn't too hard, don't remember if health regenerated. It probably did. 

I felt like less of a fool with the wolf purchase. The gfx are nice, but the gameplay felt clunky to me. I found having to press use to pick up items, inlcuding health, annoying and a strange choice for "retro" shooter. Story made the gameplay stop n go, which really never allowed me to set into a groove. Ok game overall but i probably wont play it again. 

By popular demand, we�re opening DOOM alpha access beyond our DOOM Beta group. First come, first serve.

Xbox http://doom.com/en-us/alpha/xbox
Steam http://doom.com/en-us/alpha/steam
PS4 http://doom.com/en-us/alpha/sony 

Aaaand closed. 

Got in! So now I can experience disappointment before other people! 

make sure you whine about how it sucks here! :D 

I suspect the word order is wrong (at least, I hope it is wrong). 

 

It's not exactly the same as Doom 1 and 2 in every way, therefore it sucks and it raped my childhood etc. etc.

Jar Jar.